Itinerary Sanity Check

The Hague
To Delft
To Rotterdam
To Baarle
Is it feasible to cover all 4 places in one day?

Please don't do this. Pick ONE and enjoy the day. If you want a bigger city/museums - Rotterdam or The Hague. If you want a lovely, scenic town to wander around in, pick Delft. You could maybe go to Delft and The Hague in one day since they're so close - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

It's also a shame you purchased tickets for all 3 museums in one day - Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank House, Van Gogh Museum. It's like you're on The Amazing Race. Slow down and enjoy yourself :-)

I’m sorry, but I really don’t know how to respond to this. I really wished you came to this forum earlier. Your itinerary, especially Sunday April 21, is really too busy and not enjoyable at all. You’re trying to cram too much in too little time. I understand that the Netherlands seems small to someone from the US, but it isn’t that small that you can visit The Hague, Delft, Rotterdam and Baarle-Nassau all in 1 day.
Let me try to explain why;
From Amsterdam to The Hague takes 53 minutes by train. That’s only the time on the train. It doesn’t include the time needed to get from your hotel to Amsterdam Central train station, find the correct platform, get from the train station in The Hague into the city etc.
From The Hague to Delft is 13 minutes on the train. Again this is just the time on the train.
From Delft to Rotterdam takes 12 minutes.
From Rotterdam to Baarle-Nassau takes an absolute minimum of 1.5 hours by train and bus.
That’s a total of at the very least 3 hours before you even reach Baarle-Nassau.

From Baarle-Nassau back to Amsterdam takes at least 2:15 hour. But on Sunday, the last bus from Baarle-Nassau to Breda where you’ll need to switch to the train, leaves at 6pm. This means that you have to visit The Hague, Delft, Rotterdam and Baarle-Nassau before 6 pm. That’s totally and completely undoable.

I appreciate this is probably not what you wanted to hear, but you did ask for a sanity check.

Please don't do this. Pick ONE and enjoy the day. If you want a bigger city/museums - Rotterdam or The Hague. If you want a lovely, scenic town to wander around in, pick Delft. You could maybe go to Delft and The Hague in one day since they're so close - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Thanks for the feedback. I understand I won’t be able to cover everything. This list is basically my wish list and I’m looking for feedback to narrow it down to something enjoyable.

I haven’t figure out what to do in Utrecht and Arnhem yet. I can forgo those and spend a day in Rotterdam and the following day in The Hague and Delft.

It's also a shame you purchased tickets for all 3 museums in one day - Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank House, Van Gogh Museum. It's like you're on The Amazing Race. Slow down and enjoy yourself :-)

All those places need reservations. When I bought my tickets, Thursday was the only day with time slots still available. I guess it’s a holiday week and they go fast.

“ All those places need reservations. When I bought my tickets, Thursday was the only day with time slots still available. I guess it’s a holiday week and they go fast.”

This doesn’t seem right. At what website did you buy your tickets? Neither the Van Gogh museum nor the Rijksmuseum is sold out that week. Both museums still have plenty of time slots available for April 26 and April 27 in addition to April 25.

@Dutch_traveler

Thanks for the feedback. Other than Keukenhof and Thurs. 4/25, my itinerary is not set in stone. I have a feeling it’s too much and that’s why I’m here.

I’m taking @Mary’s advice and will forgo Utrecht and Arnhem and split that Sunday into 2 days.

Is there anything else I can improve?

This doesn’t seem right. At what website did you buy your tickets? Neither the Van Gogh museum nor the Rijksmuseum is sold out that week. Both museums still have plenty of time slots available for April 26 and April 27 in addition to April 25

I bought them about 2 weeks ago directly from the museum websites. I just checked the Van Gogh Museum and you’re right they do have slots available on Friday and Saturday. I originally planned for the Van Gogh Museum for Friday but I’m not sure what happened when I bought them.

*edit: I requested changing Van Gogh Museum to Friday. Hopefully it will work.

I'm glad you're cutting back a bit. There's a reason we on the Forum are so often urging people to slow down.

For April 20, think about the Corrie Ten Boom museum; the Franz Hals museum; Teyler's Museum; and of course, the Grotekerk, the magnificent St Bavo's Church. I think there may be an archaeological museum in the St Bavo's Church Square.

I would also consider giving Haarlem a full day. The museums are great, and there are a lot of good places to eat. We usually spend at least three days there.

Your agenda doesn't seem to account for any transit time. Unless you are already very familiar with the trains/trams/buses, it's going to take a lot longer than you think it will to see everything on your list.

I hope you are able to change your Van Gogh ticket to another day. Trying to see those two museums and the Anne Frank House in one day is, frankly, nuts. My husband and I were in AMS a few weeks ago. Just seeing the Rijksmuseum - and we didn't see nearly all of it - took all morning. Unless you are specifically interested in something at the Rijks, or are interested in Dutch history, and not just going there because you think you should go, if you can't change your VG ticket consider skipping the Rijks.

As far as your day of Delft/Hague/Rotterdam, I think dutch_traveler has made it pretty clear that's nigh impossible. You could see (and by "see" I mean spend a couple hours, not counting transit time) Delft and the Hague but I can't imagine you'd be able to see much at all in Rotterdam.

Haarlem is a nice city to just wander. There are a few small museums, none of which we had time to see (we spent most of our time biking in and outside of Haarlem). Re the Corrie Ten Boom house, it's my understanding it is booked months in advance, though if you had your heart set on going in, you can wait outside and see if someone with a ticket is a no-show. Obviously we don't know what your particular interests are, so Google what there is to see in Haarlem and I'm sure someone knowledgeable can advise you about what you're interested in.

As far as what you can do when you arrive and have time to kill, there are luggage lockers at Amsterdam Centraal. We did not use them, but we saw the signs for them. You could park your bags for a few hours, head out of the train station and explore on foot. If you walk a block or two beyond Damrak (veering to the right), you'll be on some quieter side streets along a canal where you can just wander or sit on a bench. The rick Steves Europe app has at least one free audio guided tour of Amsterdam which you could easily do while you're killing time.

Looks like the recommendation is to spend a full day in Haarlem. I can forgo Rotterdam with Haarlem. This is a better fit since I like wandering around a smaller city surrounded by a lot of old architectural buildings than a "modern" city. I still want to keep The Hague for Mauritshuis and Delft because it seems like a nice place to wander around in an afternoon.

The problem I have now is 4/20. Is it worth spending a whole day at Keukenhof? Should I add another place to that day?

Revised itinerary so far:

20Apr:

• To Keukenhof
• To ???? any suggestion?

21Apr:

• To The Hague
• To Delft

22Apr:

• To Haarlem

23Apr to 27Apr - still in the work

I'm not really quite sure how to phrase this, but..... Are you aware that the parade is Saturday, April 20th, that Keukenhof is sold out that day, and that the traffic will be an issue that day and that it might be difficult to do anything else that day? https://bloemencorso-bollenstreek.nl/en/

Also, if it interests you, the parade ends in Haarlem and the floats are available for public viewing on Sunday, April 21st.

Enjoy the flowers.

Just returned from Amsterdam and I, like others, think this itinerary is overly aggressive and would not be fun. It’s not just one day that is aggressive; it’s many of the days. That’s my feedback.

We did Keukenhof and had an 830 time slot and did not get back to RAI until 13:30 or so. That’s without the parade. I did have 4 kids in tow, so you may be able to plow through it faster on your own. If you’re doing the Keukenhof Express, you could feasibly go to Haarlem instead of RAI Amsterdam, I suppose, but that’ll only give you a half day there. Haarlem has some great sights and so, depending on what you want to see, a half day might not be enough.

Do note that on Mondays the main museums in Haarlem are closed and shops only open up after 12:00/13:00. If you want to experience Haarlem properly, I would not come on a Monday as it will be very, very quiet.

As others mentioned, the floats will be parked in the Haarlem city centre on the 21st, so you may want to consider to go that day instead.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I came up with this based on all the comments.

4/20/24 - Saturday

• Keukenhof Garden

4/21/24 - Sunday

• Haarlem

4/22/24 - Monday

• Enkhuizen - Zuiderzeemseum
• Hoorn

4/23/24 - Tuesday

• Zaanse Schans
• Head back via Volendam and Marken

4/24/24 - Wednesday

• The Hague - Mauritshuis
• Delft

4/25/24 - Thursday

• Rijksmuseum
• Anne Frank House

4/26/24 - Friday

• Van Gogh Museum
• Rembrandt House

4/27/24 - Saturday

• To ???

For the 27th, check carefully anything you wish to visit because they could be closed. I will be there from the 23 to the 28th (my 3rd visit), and have my Anne Frank house tickets the morning of the 27th and Rijksmuseum tickets that afternoon. We had hoped to do a bike ride in the countryside, but it is not offered on the holiday. I would recommend the Resistance Museum or the Church in the Attic, but I believe they are both closed on the 27th, so you would have to do them on one of your other days. We also made a dinner reservation for the 27th which will be our last night also, because a lot of restaurants I checked were to be closed that day.